Well, football is important -- the sport helps some go to college, and if you're lucky enough, you go to the NFL. Giants defensive end Justin Tuck is about helping people, and is using football to do it.
Tuesday night at Chelsea Piers in New York, Tuck, along with several people associated with athletics on and off the field, will talk to about 150 kids in high school and college about the importance of using sports as a means to better their lives. The program is put on as part of the New Yorkers For Children organization.
Tuck will be joined by former NBA star Alonzo Mourning and CJ Brown, a former football player at Columbia, who now works for JP Morgan.
Go ahead, call me a sap -- I've been called much worse. For some reason, jersey retirement ceremonies get me every time, and Alonzo Mourning's was no exception. Sure, Pat Riley's comments were cliche, and the Creed song was a poor choice. But Mourning becoming the first actual member of the team to have his jersey raised to the rafters (Michael Jordan and Dan Marino had their numbers retired for some reason as well) was awesome, and of course, well-deserved.
It seems impossible, but every time LeBron James has a monster game, Dwyane Wade comes right back with his own version of the same. After LeBron's streak of three consecutive triple-doubles came to an end in Sacramento on Friday, he still managed to score 51 points and lead his team to an overtime victory over the Kings. Not to be topped, Wade scored 50 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and had nine assists in a triple-overtime win over the Utah Jazz.
Last week, FanHouse brought you a couple of greatinterviews with Dwyane Wade and Alonzo Mourning, who were doing the media circuit in order to promote their charity All-Star game that was going down in Miami over the weekend. Besides watching a bunch of sick dunks and alley-oops with zero defense, fans were treated to a dance off between D-Wade, LeBron James, Damon Jones, and Zo. Here's a little sample.
Looks like LeBron is the big dancer of the group, and if you ask me, D-Wade looked a little tentative out there. I guess a 15-win season will do that to you.
If you want to see more, including Damon Jones getting on the mic and encouraging the best looking ladies to come down and dance with him, there's a 10 minute version after the jump. (Hey, it's the off season. What else are you going to watch?)
This morning, World Champion NBA guard and All-World charity machine Dwyane Wade took some time out of his busy day -- chillin' in the G2 lounge is hard work, people -- to answer some questions from FanHouse about blogging diarying, the Olympics, Mike Beasley, Supernintendo Chalmers, Zo's Summer Groove and his iPod.
Will Brinson: Dwyane, what's up, man? Good morning and thanks for taking time to chat with FanHouse.
Dwyane Wade: Good morning, Will. Thanks for having me on, man.
WB: For there not being any games on, the NBA is pretty hectic right now, and suddenly the East looks pretty tough, especially with yesterday's craziness. What are your thoughts on where the Heat stand for 2008-09 in terms of addressing needs at the draft and free agency to get back to where you guys were a few years ago?
DW: Well, we were very excited about the guys we picked up in the draft this year. You know Beasley has a chance to be special -- a great player -- and Chalmers is a guy that could shock a lot of people. I can't believe he even fell to the second round, to the 34th pick, so we're very, very excited about getting those two guys.
I think we approach free agency very cautiously as well. We have a couple names, a couple guys we're targeting. But it's all about putting the right pieces together, not about the big names every summer, it's about adding the right pieces to the team and Coach Riley has done a great job with that.
When something works (and by "works" I mean "gets a $400,000 debt paid off") you usually become pretty willing to use that method again. Which would explain why the Wynn Casino, who publicly shamed Charles Barkley into paying off a six figure debt, is getting busy in court again.
Wynn Las Vegas claims NBA Entertainment, NBA Properties and co-defendant Alonzo Mourning Charities have failed to pay a $50,000 bill for convention and meeting space and related services used during the 2007 NBA All-Star weekend.
[...]The casino claims to have entered into an agreement with NBA Entertainment for use of the resort's hotel and convention space during the February 2007 event.
NBA Entertainment then authorized the charity to use some of the convention and meeting space for a fund-raiser, according to the lawsuit.
But, in a vicious strike by karma, the casino quickly backtracked, stating that an "administrative error" led to the filing of the complaint against the NBA; they were only trying to sue Mourning's Charity organization. Which, while terribly stupid looking for the attorneys that represent the Wynn, is still just as embarrassing for Mourning.
Now, odds say that his charity organization either a) forgot to pay the bill or b) got crossed up with the NBA on who was going to pay the casino off. But that doesn't make it any less awkward for them, and you can bet the Wynn gets the 50k paid to them pretty fast. Or else they're coming to collect. And they don't take "no" for an answer. Just kidneys.
In the East Regional, the forgotten team is Washington State. With UNC blowing away everyone and fans salivating over the Tennessee-Louisville game, the Cougars are right under the radar.
That happens. Carolina and the Vols are relatively close to Charlotte, the site of the games, with Louisville not tremendously far away. Pullman, WA may as well be on the other side of the planet.
Still, WSU coach Tony Bennettknows a bit about Charlotte. After a nice career as a player at Wisconsin-Green Bay, Bennett was drafted by the NBA's Charlotte Hornets.
"I don't think too many people will remember me and be pulling for the Cougs down there," said Bennett, whose fourth-seeded team plays No. 1 seed UNC in the NCAA Round of 16 on Thursday. "They'll be cheering for the Carolina blues."
When Alonzo Mourning went down with a torn patella tendon and quadriceps in his right leg last month, most of us assumed that his career had come to an end. After all, he was pretty clear before the injury that this would be his final season, and considering how badly he messed up his knee, there's really no chance of him returning this year.
But while talking to reporters on Monday, Mourning made it clear that he's un-made up his mind about 2008-09 and is leaving the door open for a return to the court:
"Right now, my focus is just to get healthy," Mourning said. "I haven't really thought about if I'm going to retire or not. But my focus is getting healthy, being able to run and walk, and once I overcome that hurdle I'll be prepared to let you know if I'm going to play again."
Especially considering all that he's overcome in his career, Mourning has actually aged quite gracefully and remains a tenacious defender and capable rebounder -- before going down, he was certainly one of the top backup centers in the league.
But what's his incentive to return? Is it just to prove that he can? He's already won a title, he's already made more money than he'll ever spend and he's cemented his status as one of the toughest players to ever play the game. The Heat, meanwhile, are simply terrible, and while they'll be better next year (imagine Derrick Rose or Michael Beasley joining the starting lineup), it's too early to think they'll be a legitimate playoff team. Mourning has been loyal to Pat Riley, but Riles might not even make it through this year before moving to the front-office full-time. I could be wrong, but I'm guessing we've seen the last of Mourning.
"Oh, man, that would be the icing on the cake for me," he said. "Especially with the group of guys that they have now, still, some of the key guys that were there when I spent the best year of my career. It would be special."
Jones was one of the league's leading three-point shooters in 2004-05, his only season with the Heat. He also formed a close bond with center Shaquille O'Neal and guard Dwyane Wade. [...] "Man, I'm very comfortable with the system," he said. "I don't know if I could really say what I want to say, but I would definitely enjoy being back in that system and trying to get back that success we had some years ago."
I don't get it: what more does he want to say that he hasn't already? He wants to get out of Cleveland so bad he's willing to leave behind a team that played in the NBA Finals last year for a squad that's posted the second-worst record in the league thus far.
Well, this is kind of depressing: two (potentially) career-ending injuries on the same day. On Wednesday afternoon, the Warriors announced that Troy Hudson's hip condition may prevent him from returning to the court, and later that night, Alonzo Mourning tore the patellar tendon in his right knee. Although it completely caught him off guard, Mourning knew right away the severity of his injury. From the AP:
"We tried to help him up and he just said 'It's over, it's over,"' Miami's Udonis Haslem said.
With that in the back of his mind, Mourning was determined to leave the court on his terms: he was placed on a stretcher but refused to ride. Instead, he stoop up with the help of his teammates and limped off the court.
"That's not the way I envisioned myself walking off the court for the last time in my career," he said. "I've been through so much in my life. If I had to crawl off the court I would have. Nobody was going to push me off on a stretcher off the court. That wasn't going to happen."
Mourning will go down as one of the best defensive players of all time, as well as one of the most inspirational after missing time with a kidney condition and eventually returning after receiving a transplant. Of course, there's still a slight chance that he could return this year, but these types of injuries generally require at least three months to return from. The way Miami has played this year, the playoffs look like a distant possibility at best (especially without Zo), which means that a speedy recovery would only result in being able to play a handful of meaningless regular season games in late March and early April. I wouldn't put it past him to do just that just so he can go out on his terms, but he's already definitively ruled out any chance of his returning to play for a 16th season.
Sometimes it's not only about football.
It seems impossible, but every time 
When something works (and by "works" I mean "gets a $400,000 debt paid off") you usually become pretty willing to use that method again. Which would explain why the Wynn Casino, who publicly shamed 
In the East Regional, the forgotten team is Washington State. With UNC blowing away everyone and fans salivating over the Tennessee-Louisville game, the Cougars are right under the radar. 
When 
Remember the story about how 
